1、On the Influence of Anxiety on English LearningChapter 1 Introduction1.1 Thesis topicLanguage learning strategies and foreign language anxiety have long been two hot topics that have received considerable attention from a great number of researchers. The research on language learning strategies star

2、ted in 1970s, and it has a history of more than 30 years until now. There are mainly five subjects: 1) the strategies used by successful language learners 2) the differences in language learning strategies use between successful learners and unsuccessful learners 3) the relationship between language

3、 learning strategies and language learning achievement 4) the factors which influence language learning strategies use 5) language learning strategy training and its effects on language learning.Language experts and researchers used to pay much of their attentions to foreign language learning from t

4、he teachers perspective. But when they find that not all of the problems or difficulties derive from teachers, they begin to shift their attention to learners. Foreign language anxiety is a very important affective factor of influencing language learning performance. The paper aims to present what f

5、oreign language anxiety is and what measures can be taken to deal with the problem. Based on the study and investigation into western theories on language learning anxiety, the present article discusses the effects of language anxiety on language learning. Anxiety is one of learners affective attitu

6、des besides motivation, empathy, self esteem, self-image, etc. Most research on anxiety has shown that anxiety plays an important role in second language acquisition either directly or indirectly. There seems to be a bi-directional negative correlation between high degree of anxiety and language lea

7、rning achievement. In other words, high degree of anxiety may lead to poor linguistic performance while the learners awareness of their poor language competence may bring about certain degree of anxiety which further impedes their language cognition. Macintyre (1995：90-99) has indicated that foreign

8、 language anxiety is weakest for children and strongest for adolescents and adults. The three components of foreign language anxiety exist in different environments: communication apprehension in natural environments outside the classroom, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation appears inside

9、the classroom. The focus of this thesis is first to show the total anxiety state of the subjects in Chinese context, then to explore the source of foreign language anxiety, the last to find strategies to solve the problem so as to improve foreign language results. 1.2 ObjectivesThis thesis intends t

10、o achieve three objectives. First is to provide an overview of the literature concerning the influence of anxiety on foreign language learning. At present, researchers, instead of having arrived at any definite conclusion on the correlation between language anxiety and language learning, have only a

11、chieved some general theories. So far, some researches on language anxiety in Chinese context have been conducted. However, they still remain at a general level. Since China is the country with the largest foreign language learning population, it is worthwhile to do more research in Chinese setting.

12、 More researches from different perspectives (different region, different group of learners and etc.) may provide a further insight into the theories concerned and enables instructors to have a better understanding of the state of language anxiety in Chinese setting so as to modify their way of teac

13、hing accordingly. The second objective is to explore and analyze the souce of language anxiety. The third objective is to discuss some implications and to offer some operational suggestions on how to improve forging language learning in Chinese setting by alleviating anxiety and to propose some new

14、directions for further research in this field.Chapter 2 Literature ReviewIn this chapter, we will have a global idea of anxiety research by reviewing relevant literature including the difference between anxiety and language anxiety classification of anxiety, the well-known measures of anxiety, the c

15、orrelates of anxiety, the impact of anxiety on language learning, etc.2.1 Anxiety and Language Anxiety2.1.1 AnxietyAnxiety is a part of normal human experience. Psychologists define it as a feeling of tension associated with a sense of threat of danger when the source of the danger is not known. Acc

16、ording to Scovel (1978：129-142), anxiety is a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. Anxiety is generally seen as a psychological element and has been explored by researchers. Spielberger (1966: 3-20) describes anxiety as subjective, conscio

17、usly perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by or associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Frequently, people with anxiety experience have symptoms such as tightness in their chest, a racing or pounding heart, and a pain in their stomach. Anxiety ca

18、uses some people to get a headache, to sweat, and to have the urge to urinate. Many people have the feeling of anxiety in their daily life but the level of anxiety differs. Moderate anxiety may warn us of the oncoming danger and sometimes can activate us to get ready for the fight. However, high deg

19、ree of anxiety may have negative effects on people by interfering with their daily work. There are some ways to describe anxiety feeling when people are threatened by something such as “to become stiffened on seeing a snake”, “to have some butterflies in the stomach before making a public speech”, “

20、to get weak-kneed in front of the opposite sex or looking over a high building”, “to freak out around spider”, etc. These feelings of anxiety are common, understandable and normal because they are an inevitable part of our biology, embedded into our brain during the process of evolution. But some pe

21、ople suffer from uncommon anxiety that may last longer and has become something more than mere occasional nervousness. As a result, this anxiety has become a constant and dominating force that severely disrupts the quality and reduces the enjoyment of their lives.2.1.2 Language AnxietyLanguage anxie

22、ty includes second language and foreign language anxiety. According to Horwitz and Cope (1986:127-132), language anxiety belongs to situation-specific anxiety. It refers to the fact that when learners use their target language to listen, speak, read, and write, they feel that their limited language

23、level cannot accurately and effectively express their meanings, so they feel nervous and scared. Language anxiety is described here as a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to using a foreign/second language for communication beyond the language classroom.

24、Language anxiety has been further divided into facilitating anxiety (which produces positive effects on language learners performance) and deliberating anxiety (which produces negative effects on learning achievement) (Albert and Haber, 1960: 207-215). When anxiety is limited to the language-learnin

25、g situation, it falls into the category of specific anxiety reactions. Researchers have identified several specific anxieties associated with school tasks such as test-taking and with academic subject such as mathematics or science while second language researchers and theorists think that it is nec

26、essary to identify foreign language anxiety as a conceptually distinct variable in foreign language learning and interpret it within the context of existing theoretical and empirical work in specific anxiety reactions. One of the well-defined constructs of foreign language classroom anxiety is conce

27、ptualized by Horwitz et al. According to Horwitz et al (1986: 127-132), since foreign language concerns performance evaluation within an academic and social context, parallels can be drawn between it and three related performance anxieties (1) communication apprehension; (2) test anxiety; (3) fear o

28、f negative evaluation.During many years research, Psychologists describes the correlations of anxiety degree and study efficiency as an invert diagram of “u”.study efficiency highest lowest moderate utmost anxiety degreeThat is to say, too much or less anxiety degree will cause a bad effect. The mod

29、erate anxiety degree is optimum. The moderate sentiments is helpful to keep our interests and alertness and beneficial to improve efficiency. Excessive nervous or lax is harmful to keep excited and will make a bad efficiency. However, it is very abstractive to describe the correlations of anxiety de

30、gree and study efficiency. In fact, based on different people and different study tasks , the diagram is different.Some professors state that anxiety usually restrain students achievement in primary school. The encouragement of anxiety exceeds the disadvantage in middle school. But foreign language

31、anxiety has very little relations with study achievement in university. From the above results we can come to a conclusion that the influence of language anxiety is relate to level of understanding. As the development of ability, the influence of language anxiety will lose its negative effect.Result

32、s of many researches show:(1) It does exist a level of foreign language anxiety among the English majors.(2) There is significant difference of foreign language anxiety between genders, especially in lower stages.(3) There is significant difference among grades. Students of lower grades suffer highe

33、r level of anxiety than those of higher grades.(4) The biggest anxiety is “speech anxiety” and “test anxiety” for the students of all grades.(5) Students of higher proficiency are much less anxious than students of lower proficiency.(6) The biggest difference between moderately anxious students and

34、highly anxious students is “Fear of Negative Evaluation”.(7) Most subjects tend to idealize their learning goal.(8) Most moderately anxious subjects have more ambiguity tolerance than those highly anxious subjects.2.2 Influence of FLA on Foreign Language LearningMacIntyre and Gardner stated that the

35、 strongest negative correlate oflanguage achievement is anxiety. Studies show the negative correlation of anxiety with the following: grades in language courses (Aida, 1994; Howitz et al, 1986; Trylong, 1987); proficiency test performance (Ganschow et al, 1994; Gardner et al, 1987); performance in s

36、peaking and writing tasks (Trylong, 1987; Young, 1986); self-confidence in language learning (MacIntyre Gardner, 1991; Gardner MacIntyre, 1993); self-esteem, namely the judgement of ones own worth ( Horwitz etal, 1986; Price, 1991; Scarcella Oxford, 1992). The relationship between FLA and language p

37、erformance is not simple. Some research suggested that language anxiety was actually helpful or facilitating in some ways, such as keeping students alert (Scovel, 1978). However, language researchers hold different views about the existence or significance of helpful anxiety. Although the correlatio

38、ns between anxiety and language achievement are not always consistent, in most cases, researchers reported the correlations were negative. Gardner et al (1976) concluded that foreign language classroom anxiety was negatively correlated with language performance closely; its influence was second only

39、 to ability and motivation. Campbell and Ortiz (1991) noted that many students experienced a considerable amount of anxiety in their classes and they simply tried to avoid language tasks.The author visits and talks with a lot of students and find that many of them do not dare speak English in public

40、. They fell nervous and anxious of making mistake. They avoid answering questions in class. Sparks and Ganschow (1995) pointed out that anxiety might be the results of language learning problems rather the cause, nevertheless, negative influence of FLA on language learning did exist. Although the re

41、lationship between FLA and language performance is not simple, in most cases, researchers reported FLA had negative influence on language learning. In the authors opinion, importance should be attached to language learners FLA since the negative influence of FLA has been extensively realized. The fo

42、llow-up research needs to find out the causes of FLA and methods to deal with it.Some researchers think that a little anxiety is helpful to study. This is called the positive effect of anxiety. For example, the moderate Anxiety of competition sometimes can stimulate our potential. This type of anxie

43、ty is favorable to improve efficiency. However, many scholars distrust the positive effect of anxiety. They think the anxiety in the classroom has disadvantageous effect, that is, negative effect. The students will become nervous because of foreign language anxiety. It will cause inferior performanc

44、e in the classroom. The students do not take an active part in classroom activities; they are reluctant to ask or answer questions. The excessive anxiety will consume students vigor which should be used to remember and think deeply. On other hand, foreign language anxiety has an influence beyond the

45、 classroom. For example, it will play an important role for students in choosing curriculum, special field of study and profession. Some students oppose that foreign language is an obligatory. From the dialectics view, anything has positive and negative aspects. This author approves of Brown (2001:1

46、43) compromise argues. In addition to the types of anxiety, the degree is also a problem.All people have different degree of anxiety in learning new curriculum and new language. However, the foreign language anxiety may cause more motive learning force. Too much or too little anxiety is possible to

47、prevent from learning foreign language. So we should not only think about the negative effect of language anxiety.The overwhelming force from parents, teachers, examination and eager attitude will cause the students have anxiety. If the pressure is moderate, it will have the positive effect, vice ve

48、rsa. So we should know that learning foreign language should progress step by step in an orderly way. We should face the difficult in moderate attitude. Chapter 3 Factors Related to Language AnxietyThis part will introduce those elements related to anxiety including anxiety correlates and anxiety-pr

49、ovoking situations.3.1 Social AnxietySocial anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interaction with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of self-consciousness, judgment, evaluation, and scrutiny. Put in another way, social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being judged an

50、d evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression. If a person usually becomes anxious in social situations, but seems fine when they are alone, then “social phobia” may be the problem.Social anxiety can include speech anxiety, shyn

51、ess, stage fright, embarrassment, social-evaluative anxiety and communication apprehension (Leary, 1983). Social anxiety occurs along with the prospect or actual presence of interpersonal evaluation. People who are highly concerned about others evaluations of them-and we might assume theses to be pe

52、ople with shaky self-esteem and /or strong external locus of control (the learners belief that his or own performance is controlled by external factors)- tend to act in ways that minimize the likelihood of negative assessments. These people are more likely to avoid or withdraw from social situations

53、 in which they often fail to take the initiative or participate only minimally in conversations (Aida, 1994:155-168). In the language classroom, this is observable in behaviors such as keeping silent, responding only when necessary, being passive, and avoiding class entirely. Communication apprehens

54、ion is defined as a persons level of anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons (McCroskey,1984). People who suffer from communication apprehension are more reluctant to converse or interact with others; therefore they tend to avoid communication

55、or withdraw from it as soon as possible. 3.2 Test AnxietyTest anxiety is the tendency to become alarmed about the consequences of inadequate performance on a test or other evaluation, regardless of whether the fears are realistic. Students with test anxiety frequently experience cognitive interferen

56、ce and have a difficult time focusing on the task at hand (Sarason, 1984: 929-938; Adia, 1994:155-168). Generally, we all experience some level of nervousness or tension before tests or other events in our lives. A little nervousness can help motivate us; however, too much of it can become a problem

57、, especially if it interferes with our ability to prepare for and perform on tests.3.3 Identity and Culture ShockIdentification with a language group or target culture implies that the learner is an insider, a member of the “club” of French, Spanish, German or Chinese speakers. Young (1991: 57-64) s

58、uggests that anxiety is lower (that is, the affective filter is reduced) if a student does not identify with the language group. Paradoxically, for other learners anxiety can arise because of over-identification with the language group and the concurrent feeling of loss of personal identity. Anxiety

59、 about losing ones own identity can be part of culture shock. Culture shock is defined as a form of anxiety that results from the loss of commonly perceived and understood signs and symbols of social intercourse (Adler, 1987). Culture shock can involve some or all of these symptoms: emotional regression, physical illness, panic, anger, h